Woodley United are pleased to announce that this year’s tournament (formerly Woodley
Hammers Tournament) is returning to the Bulmershe School Woodley. We would like to
invite clubs to enter the tournament, in which there will be competitions for Under 7 (i.e. under 7 on 1 September 2017) to U16, with the potential for girls’ competitions depending on demand.

Under 7s & 8s will play 6 or 7 non-competitive matches as 5-a- side (in accordance with FA Guidelines) with squads of up to 8 players. Each player will receive a medal.

All other age groups will play league matches as 6-a- side with squads of up to 8 players.
After the league stage, all teams will participate in either the main knockout or consolation
competition.

Please note that Football Academy Players are ineligible for this Tournament.

Application Forms are available online.

To enter your team(s), please complete the application form and return to the Entries Coordinator with your entry fee of £35 (£30 if paid before 31 st March) for all age groups. The closing date for entries is 1 st May and entries are accepted at the discretion of the Coordinator. If entering more than one team please specify team name (e.g. A, B, Reds, Blues, Hawks, Eagles etc).

The 2018 Woodley Utd Tournament will take place on 2nd/3rd June
Woodley United are pleased to announce that this year’s tournament (formerly Woodley
Hammers Tournament) is returning to the Bulmershe School Woodley. We would like to
invite clubs to enter the tournament, in which there will be competitions for Under 7 (i.e. under 7 on 1 September 2017) to U16, with the potential for girls’ competitions depending on demand.

Under 7s & 8s will play 6 or 7 non-competitive matches as 5-a- side (in accordance with FA Guidelines) with squads of up to 8 players. Each player will receive a medal.

All other age groups will play league matches as 6-a- side with squads of up to 8 players.
After the league stage, all teams will participate in either the main knockout or consolation
competition.

Please note that Football Academy Players are ineligible for this Tournament.

Application Forms are available online.

To enter your team(s), please complete the application form and return to the Entries Coordinator with your entry fee of £35 (£30 if paid before 31 st March) for all age groups. The closing date for entries is 1 st May and entries are accepted at the discretion of the Coordinator. If entering more than one team please specify team name (e.g. A, B, Reds, Blues, Hawks, Eagles etc).

I have great pleasure in inviting your club to participate in our 2018 Tournament.
The event will be held over the weekend of the 12th and 13th of May at the Sandyacres Sports & Social
Club, Sandyhurst Lane, Ashford, Kent TN25 4NT

All age groups will be 6-a-side with squads of 10 players maximum.
Ages will be determined by the current 2017/18 season
All age groups will be competitive and will play in a league phase followed by:
Quarter-final*, semi-finals and final for 1st & 2nd placed teams. Semi-final* and final for 3rd place teams.
*dependant on amount of teams entered

To enter the tournament please complete the attached entry form and follow instructions
The initial closing date for entering the tournament is 12th March 2018.

Entry fee per team is £30.00
Entry fees will be presented to the bank once received.
Do not assume this as successful entry, confirmation of successful/unsuccessful applicants will be sent two weeks after the entry deadline has passed.

Hot/cold refreshments will be available to purchase from various outlets situated on site.
We hope to have a number of side stalls and activities in attendance over the weekend including professional photographers.

There is a fee of £2 per vehicle for parking which includes 1 free tournament program, please inform any spectators accompanying your team/s of these details.

Our Tournament is proving more and more popular every year and places are limited so please book early to avoid disappointment, we have unfortunately had to turn away a number of teams in previous years due to oversubscription.

As a coach I have realised every coach is different and hath both different temperaments and reasons for being involved in football. Some play for the win, striving for the precious 3 points a victory brings. Others do the job for the hope that their team and the individuals in the team will show improvement.

Our team has played against teams whose coaches have said very little during a match. Only the slightest amount of direction, heaping the praise when it is due. Other coaches have screamed, shouted and barked orders at their players. I have sometimes wondered how they expect 9, 10, 11 or 12 year olds to compute all the information that they are bombarded with from the touchline.

It has shocked me sometimes how coaches can expect this at such an early age. I myself have sometimes sat on the fence in the past and have been unsure which method is best. However being involved first hand I have taken to trying to guiding the players without being vocal all of the time.

This has sometimes led to criticism that I should be more hands on, but it is my belief that self-learning is pivotal in a player’s development. It improves problem solving and allows them to be more expressive. This then leads to enjoyment of the game for the players not only on an individual level but as a team. It helps them build there confidence and positive reinforcement is key.

Not only are the players always learning….coaches are too. Football for me is a constant learning experience. However your coaching ethos can be helped by the coaches not only in your team but in your club. I have been lucky enough to work with some truly special coaches within my club. They have welcomed me into the club and have helped me in my early days and still do. They have helped me with sessions and have been kind enough to allow me to attend theirs. We have shared best practices which allow us as a club to develop further.

Also upon taking my F.A. level 1 course I was also lucky to work with an F.A. Mentor. He was there for direction, development and to ensure that you were comfortable in giving your sessions. His expertise and wisdom of the game enabled me to engage my team more positively and develop them better.

I believe these figures are essential in the modern grassroots game of football. They help guide you through some of the challenging periods during a coach’s journey and allow you to overcome obstacles to become a better coach.

My 1st year as a coach has been at times challenging, but it is ultimately gratifying. I have loved being back involved with football as it was my favourite sport when I was a kid. I have enjoyed watching my team develop as individuals and a team. But for me as long as I can turn up to training and to a match on a Sunday and know that the lads are enjoying their football with a smile on their face……then I am a happy man and a happy coach!!!!!

Every weekend all over the world millions of parents, children and coaches set off for their weekly sporting ritual ‘Match Day’. Many will follow the same process each week and will never question their routine or behaviour.

Many of these parents and coaches are well intentioned, trying to support their child and their team through match situations totally unaware of the damage they may be doing by overly involving themselves before and after but crucially during the game itself.

I say that they are unaware because if they are not the current climate on the sidelines is far worse than I currently fear.

This morning I carried out a little experiment at an Under 8 grassroots football match in the UK. I counted the number of tactical instructions yelled from the sideline by parents and coaches to the children. There were 134 yelled out in 40 minutes of play. I must stress that this did not include positive praise.

Now imagine as adults if we were embarking on a task and during this time we were being yelled new instructions, in this case approximately four a minute. Now imagine on top of that, that some of these instructions were also contradictory. I believe that not only would we struggle to concentrate but we would struggle to make the correct decisions that we were originally carrying out. Just think how this must feel for a child actively involved in a sporting situation?

If parents and coaches are not aware of the damage they are doing by directing play and yelling tactical instructions from the touchline then I hope that this article will give them something to mull over.

Caught up in the excitement and emotion of a game, many parents and coaches feel that they are really helping and supporting their children whilst watching by shouting technical or tactical instruction. Whilst this may on occasions in the short term prove successful there are major long term implications of this for the player.

It reduces problem solving skills

It decreases decision making skills

It reduces creativity in young players

It reduces the child’s enjoyment

It increases the pressure on the child

It increases anxiety in the child

It prevents children from mastering life skills

It decreases the ability of the child to cope independently(particularly if the parent and the coach are not around)

Bearing all this in mind it is important that we then generate an understanding of how all of this is linked together with the behaviour that we are displaying. The following infographic from our friends at believeperform.com gives us a very powerful visual image.

My message to parents:

Are you shouting tactical instructions on the sidelines?

If your answer is, “Yes,” then stop. Stop now.

I can already hear you justifying why. I can already hear you rationalising your particular approach. I can hear you because I could be you. I am you. I want to right the wrongs for my child. I want him to score. I want him to feel joy in victory. I want him to avoid the pain of losing. I want him to know I am there, that I love him, that I am his biggest fan.

But, let me ask you:

Do you think it helps?

It does not.

No justifications, no intelligent counter arguments. No nonsense. Screaming and shouting tactical instructions is bad. It is that simple. I did not make it up.

My message to coaches:

The above still applies however there can be a little bit of flexibility if you are trying to assist your team and individuals but it should be a very measured approach.

We have a number of parents who contact us who have been told by organisations what they would like them to do and how to behave but then they have to watch the coach do exactly the opposite. Coaches must be great role models for parents and help create the right environment for the children by leading from the front. Parents will then follow.

With positive support only on the touchlines can we regain control of an environment that is in real danger of spiralling out of control. In its current climate the only people who are suffering in the long term are the people who we love and want to achieve the most; the children.

Kick It Out is developing its engagement with grassroots football nationally through its Grassroots Activity Fund.

The Grassroots Activity Fund is aimed at encouraging and helping with the facilitation of grassroots activities celebrating equality and diversity in football.

The fund has been established to facilitate small-to-medium sized events, which give grassroots clubs and organisations across the amateur game an opportunity to highlight the importance of creating a fully-inclusive environment for all.

Applicants can receive up to £1000 in funding, but it is important to note the cost needs to be kept realistic and a higher cost will require further justification from prospective applicants. Grants are made as a single lump sum and will cover the proposed event only.

Speaking after the launch of the fund, Imrul Gazi, Grassroots Advisor for Kick It Out, said: “The Grassroots Activity Fund is a great initiative and I am really excited that we are able to offer our support to local clubs and organisations in funding their own great ideas.

“It’s the work we do at grassroots that really makes all the difference and where people can make a real change.

“Kick It Out is committed to making footballing communities a fully inclusive environment for all and I’m looking forward to working with different groups.”

To submit an application, please fill in the application form below and send to Paul Kirton by emailing info@teamgrassroots.co.uk

For over a decade I have been involved in the local football league. During this period I have spent time as a coach, mentor, referee, physio, kit man, refreshments stall worker etc. For the past two years I’ve been spending my Sundays as a League Rep at local youth games.

Recently I came across a team I briefly coached a couple of years ago. Lads of 9 years age now but I noticed a couple of the lads I remembered were missing. I asked some of the parents where these lads were. I assumed they had been lured away by the modern life of computer games and had lost interest in football. A parent rather sheepishly told me that they had been ‘released’ as they weren’t of the standard of the others. I asked them if they thought that was fair to them. The parent agreed it was slightly underhand but understood the coach’s views.

My response was “the team has a coach”? The parent was taken aback and I carried on by telling him that if he was any kind of coach then dropping kids and replacing them with better ability kids isn’t coaching. A coach can bring out ability. I’m not saying a Pele can be created from nothing but given good coaching a kid can be taught to play the game well. These kids who were cast aside were good kids with equally good parents and it makes me genuinely sad to think these kids have been removed from a team with their mates due to the fact that their coach lacks the skills to develop them. I left the parents with a warning that a coach with such a big ego will always be looking for better players and to watch their backs because if their kids fail to perform their coach won’t have any hesitation in replacing them too.

This sadly happens all too often and these coaches should hang their heads in shame. They bandy words like ‘development’ and ‘respect’ around……………..rubbish, talk is cheap and their actions speak far louder than their hypocritical rhetoric. Hats off to the genuine coaches out there developing kids with skills and attributes that will enhance their lives rather than the ‘poach not coach’ types so desperate to win games to massage their egos. I’m afraid the youth football at grassroots level is in a dire situation in this country. A huge shake up is needed and despite the FA guidleines and good practice ethics these egomaniac coaches exist in huge numbers up and down the country.

So why did I want to be a football coach and what did I think I would get out of it? The answer is not as simple as you might think. Actually it’s a bloody tough one to consider but I’ll try and be as honest as I can. When a parent looks over and notices that their child is a substitute it’s not a nice feeling. No parent ever hopes that their child will not be in the starting line-up. Internally you rationalise that it will be one of life’s lessons, or you might tell yourself that it is in the interest of fairness, and everyone must accept that they can’t play every game. It’s a fair selection process, nothing more and next week it will be someone else’s turn to sit it out.

But if you see this happen week after week it starts to become an emotional burden and difficult to bear witness to. After all, you live with this budding Lionel Messi; you’re the one who notices where he’s put his favourite teams’ calendar pride of place just where he can see it before he goes to sleep at night in his bedroom. The excited young wide eyed boy that asks you if you think they’ll play today as he busily struggles to get his socks over his shin pads. When my own son was 8 I asked him what he wanted to do when he left school. He told me he’d be a bus driver through the week and play for Manchester City at weekend. Innocence is a beautiful thing in children; everything is so black and white. Life is simple and anything is possible. How utterly disheartening then when you see that it is your child, yet again that is keeping his squad jacket on, that is freezing on the touchline patiently waiting for his coach to tell him to get warmed up.

It’s even worse if your son like mine, is the sort who will just stand there until he’s told to warm up. He would never dream of asking his manager when he’s going on. The car journey on the way home becomes abject misery. At first you can tell them that they’ll get their chance eventually. Then you tell them if they work hard, and keep trying, their chance will come. Then if you’re stupid like me, you’ll tell them it’s because they are not working hard enough. Our journey from hell was after a game for under 11’s in December 2013. It was a miserable wet and cold slate grey Manchester morning. The team were at home entertaining a local rival. I looked over as the lads warmed up with Coach hoping that my son might finally get to start a game.

He wasn’t their best player but he wasn’t their worst either. Not that that should matter. The parents were huddled closer than might be considered comfortable due the biting wind that was driving the Manchester rain into our faces. We were cold but at least we were dressed for it. The lads on the pitch were ringing wet through even in their training coats, and by now as muddy as they would have been if they’d have just played a full game. The referee, who looked about 90, and had the whitest skin I’ve ever seen, seemed not to notice the weather at all and offered a casual ‘morning’ to the Captain and the clad ensemble of parents that were eager for the game to get going. ‘Ref any chance of 5 minutes each way in this?’ one of the parents shouted, but the ref didn’t respond he was busy getting his linesman flags out of his bag. It is at this point as a parent that you have got to have your wits about you.

If you’re caught off guard and not paying full attention, you will eventually look up to see a referees flag practically shoved up your nose, and a ‘appreciate that, thanks’ message from the ref who has spun so quickly on his haunches, you can’t even recall the moment you accepted the flag into your hand. So that’s what Derren Brown does with his Saturday mornings….. Any attempt to pass the flag on yourself is rendered futile because, at that moment as you look at all the other dads, you realise that you are actually alone, and every other man and his dog has retreated to a safe distance of roughly fifteen feet away. ‘You X%$?X’ I turn to my wife and say pathetically, ‘I’ve got to do the flag again’ ‘mmm, you’ve made more appearances with that flag than our son has played all season’. I look at her apologetically, ‘get someone else to do it for a change’ she instructs. The dads looked at me apologetically, but not apologetically enough to actually take the flag. Derren Brown’s whistle signals kick off, I hastily get into position as linesman and look around the pitch for my son. He isn’t there, I look over at Coach and, oh yes there he is, the one shivering behind the other three subs. The game was 1-1 at half time which I knew meant that he wouldn’t be coming on any time soon.

Most of the parents including my wife had retreated to the safety of some trees to shelter from the downpour. I however had official flag business to attend to. I stood miserable and cold on one side of the pitch while my son was no doubt doing the same on the other. The second half saw us score another goal with just 10 minutes left. Great for the team but not so great for the subs. Coach did his best to get the lads on before the final whistle which saw my sons stats as “played 60 seconds, touches 0” As I walked towards the ref to give him his flag I heard him say to my boy ‘well played there young un’. I didn’t speak to coach after the game and we didn’t wait for his team talk.

The three of us just trudged to the car wet through and freezing cold. In the car he started pushing all the right buttons, ‘Why am I sub every week? ‘Why do I only come on if we are winning by loads or losing by loads?’

Why why why….

He was right of course, why indeed?

But I was as fed up about it as he was. I didn’t want see other people’s kids playing football every week. And so I snapped, at my ten year old son, who just wanted to be in a team, play football and drive buses.